forgive me for using such a word!” he cried, in a troubled tone; “if I hadn’t yielded to my wife’s silly request, this wouldn’t have happened!”
CHAPTER 7.
BROTHER AND SISTER.
On the same evening, in a stately chamber of a noble old mansion of Elizabeth’s time, situated in Southampton Fields, two persons were seated. One of these, a lady, evidently a confirmed invalid, and attired in deep mourning, reclined upon a sort of couch, or easy chair, set on wheels, with her head supported by cushions, and her feet resting upon a velvet footstool. A crutch, with a silver handle, stood by her side, proving the state of extreme debility to which she was reduced. It was no easy matter to determine her age, for, though she still retained a certain youthfulness of appearance, she had many marks in her countenance, usually indicating the decline of life, but which in her case were, no doubt, the result of constant and severe indisposition. Her complexion was wan and faded, except where it was tinged by a slight hectic flush, that made the want of colour more palpable; her eyes were large and black, but heavy and lustreless; her cheeks sunken; her frame emaciated; her dark hair thickly scattered with gray. When younger, and in better health, she must have been eminently lovely; and there were still the remains of great beauty about her. The expression, however, which would chiefly have interested a beholder, was that of settled and profound melancholy.
Her companion was a person of no inferior condition. Indeed it was apparent, from the likeness between them, that they were nearly related. He had the same dark eyes, though lighted by a fierce flame; the same sallow complexion; the same tall, thin figure, and majestic demeanour; the same proud cast of features. But here the resemblance stopped. The expression was wholly different. He looked melancholy enough, it is true. But his gloom appeared to be occasioned by remorse, rather than sorrow. No sterner head was ever beheld beneath the cowl of a monk, or the bonnet of an inquisitor. He seemed inexorable, and inscrutable as fate itself.
“Well, Lady Trafford,” he said, fixing a severe look upon her. “You depart for Lancashire to-morrow. Have I your final answer?”
“You have, Sir Rowland,” she answered, in a feeble tone, but firmly. “You shall have the sum you require, but ——”
“But what, Madam!”
“Do not misunderstand me,” she proceeded. “I give it to King James — not so you: for the furtherance of a great and holy cause, not for the prosecution of wild and unprofitable schemes.”
Sir Rowland bit his lips to repress the answer that rose to them.
“And the will?” he said, with forced calmness. “Do you still refuse to make one!”
“I have made one,” replied Lady Trafford.
“How?” cried her brother, starting.
“Rowland,” she rejoined, “you strive in vain to terrify me into compliance with your wishes. Nothing shall induce me to act contrary to the dictates of my conscience. My will is executed, and placed in safe custody.”
“In whose favour is it made?” he inquired, sternly.
“In favour of my son.”
“You have no son,” rejoined Sir Rowland, moodily.
“I had one,” answered his sister, in a mournful voice; “and, perhaps, I have one still.”
“If I thought so —” cried the knight fiercely; “but this is idle,” he added, suddenly checking himself. “Aliva, your child perished with its father.”
“And by whom were they both destroyed?” demanded his sister, raising herself by a painful effort, and regarding him with a searching glance.
“By the avenger of his family’s dishonour — by your brother,” he replied, coolly.
“Brother,” cried Lady Trafford, her eye blazing with unnatural light, and her cheek suffused with a crimson stain: “Brother,” she cried, lifting her thin fingers towards Heaven, “as God shall judge me, I was wedded to that murdered man!”
“A lie!” ejaculated Sir Rowland, furiously; “a black, and damning lie!”
“It is the truth,” replied his sister, falling backwards upon the couch. “I will swear it upon the cross!”
“His name, then?” demanded the knight. “Tell me that, and I will believe you.”
“Not now — not now!” she returned, with a shudder. “When I am dead you will learn it. Do not disquiet yourself. You will not have to wait long for the information. Rowland,” she added, in an altered tone, “I am certain I shall not live many days. And if you treat me in this way, you will have my death to answer for, as well as the deaths of my husband and child. Let us part in peace. We shall take an eternal farewell of each other.”
“Be it so!” rejoined Sir Rowland, with concentrated fury; “but before we do part, I am resolved to know the name of your pretended husband!”
“Torture shall not wrest it from me,” answered his sister, firmly.
“What motive have you for concealment?” he demanded.
“A vow,” she answered — “a vow to my dead husband.”
Sir Rowland looked at her for a moment, as if he meditated some terrible reply. He then arose, and, taking a few turns in the chamber, stopped suddenly before her.
“What has put it into your head that your son yet lives?” he asked.
“I have dreamed that I shall see him before I die,” she rejoined.
“Dreamed!” echoed the knight, with a ghastly smile. “Is that all? Then learn from me that your hopes are visionary as their foundation. Unless he can arise from the bottom of the Thames, where he and his abhorred father lie buried, you will never behold him again in this world.”
“Heaven have compassion on you, Rowland!” murmured his sister, crossing her hands and looking upwards; “you have none on me.”
“I will have none till I have forced the villain’s name from you!” he cried, stamping the floor with rage.
“Rowland, your violence is killing me,” she returned, in a plaintive tone.
“His name, I say! — his name!” thundered the knight.
And he unsheathed his sword.
Lady Trafford uttered a prolonged scream, and fainted. When she came to herself, she found that her brother had quitted the room, leaving her to the care of a female attendant. Her first orders were to summon the rest of her servants to make immediate preparations for her departure for Lancashire.
“To-night, your ladyship?” ventured an elderly domestic.
“Instantly, Hobson,” returned Lady Trafford; “as soon as the carriage can be brought round.”
